The San Francisco Chronicle gives "Wild Applause" to Jonny Greenwood's score for There Will Be Blood, with writer David Wiegand saying the album fully stands up on its own, apart from the film for which it was written. "A richly haunting series of symphonic and chamber poems that show their influences (Britten, Stravinsky) and cut their own paths as well," Wiegand says of Greenwood's score. Exquisite performances by the BBC Concert Orchestra, Empire Quartet, Dale and pianist Michael Dussek," writes Wiegand, "showcase the dark brilliance of Greenwood's music."

In the San Jose Mercury News review of There Will Be Blood, film critic Mary F. Pols says "there will be no other film like it this year or next, nothing that sounds like it or looks like it or feels like it." And Jonny Greenwood's score, she writes, is "as primitive, ominous, and exciting as the movie itself."